"Although it is infrequently mentioned,and it is often unfashionable to say,the truth about most private military and security contractorsis that they are mostly regular folkstrying to make a living doing often difficult jobs infrequently chaotic and dangerous conditions.

Yes, many of them are military veteransbut they are certainly not mercenaries in anymeaningful sense of the word.But often they do have one thing in common with regular military personnel, namely,they frequently get screwed over."

Baghdad BoilLeishmania is a very variable bug, There still is much we do not know about it. Very few people in this country have any reason to know anything about it, whether they be MD's or whatever. Persistant skin rashes,blistery rashes on the scalp, sores or wounds that do not heal should all be considered for leishmaniasis.

San Francisco Giantsfor them in 1984 as a September call-up and quickly entrenched himself as their starting third baseman. In his first full season in 1985, Brown batted .261 with 16 home runs and 61 runs batted in for the last-place Giants, made the All-Rookie team, and finished 4th in the National League Rookie of the Year voting (Vince Coleman of the St. Louis Cardinals won the award by unanimous vote); Brown also led the NL in times being hit by pitch (11). In 1986, Brown batted .317 and made the NL All-Star team after hitting nearly .350 in the season's first half.

Life after baseballChris Brown lived in Houston, Texas with his wife Lisa and their two children, Paris and Chris Jr. Brown, after retirement. In 2004, Brown worked in Iraq driving an 18-wheel truck delivering diesel fuel for Halliburton. He took fire on numerous occasions, including in a convoy that was attacked on April 9, 2004, in which six Halliburton drivers and one soldier were killedand another driver kidnapped and later released.[1] By 2006, Brown had returned to the United States.

Brown died at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston on December 26, 2006, nearly a month after he suffered burns in a fire on November 30 at a vacant house he owned in Sugar Land, Texas. He was 45 years of age. Police have never determined if his death was a homicide, suicide, or an accident.

If you were injured prior to 2006, you are exempt from meeting the "TIME REQUIREMENTS" for being out of the country 330 days.!THE United States Tax Court ordered that no income TAX or penalties are due for 2004, under provisionIRC, 662 (a)Form 2555 - IRS form ,(was revised 2006)

Established in 1941, the Defense Base Act (DBA) provides the equivalent of workers' compensation for civilian contractors working in contingency operations in overseas countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. "As designated by the Secretary of Defense, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq are both contingency operations.” [1] The Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) 2.101 defines a Contingency Operation (10 U.S.C. 101(a) (13)) to be a military operation that:

"(1) Is designated by the Secretary of Defense as an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing military force; or

(2) Results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the uniformed services under section 688, 12301(a), 12302, 12304, 12305, or 12406 of 10 U.S.C., Chapter 15 of 10 U.S.C, or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress." [2]

Risk Management without the Risk“Something cruel, heartless and cynical took place in the back rooms of carriers with responsibility for civilian claims. If you like Edgar Alan Poe, you’ll love the claims files of AIG and CNA.”

Foreign Workers for US are Casualties Twice OverInsurance experts said the numbers suggest that many wounded foreigners never apply for benefits, even though U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion in premiums for the war-zone insurance.

Daniel Brink, a South African, applied to Chicago-based insurer CNA for his medical benefits but said CNA declined some benefits owed to him. (Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times)Congressional hearings generally follow a script. Lawmakers publicly vent their outrage, administration officials offer plausible defenses, and the outcome is inconclusive. But last week's airing of complaints about the government's system for taking care of civilian workers injured or killed while on the job in Iraq and Afghanistan was notable for its unanimity.

AIG in Iraq: A cruel way to make a buckAIG may not know diddly about the risk in risky financial vehicles, but they certainly know how to make money in conventional comp insurance. Of course, it helps that the injured workers are so invisible, like obscure figures in a desert sand storm, struggling blindly to find some kind of shelter in a harsh and unsympathetic world.

Military Fails to Collect from AIG for Careto injured contractorsby T Christian Miller PropublicaWASHINGTON—The Pentagon has failed to bill American Insurance Group and other major insurance carriers for millions of dollars in medical care provided to private contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new federal report [1] (PDF).The United States hired hundreds of thousands of civilians to work in the two war zones. When injured on the job, their medical care is supposed to be paid for by private insurance companies, primarily AIG.

Cummings Requests Congressional Hearing onAIG Denying Claims for Civilians Injuredin Iraq, AfghanistanToday, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter (text below) to Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chairman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) requesting a hearing to examine a recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and ProPublica. According to the investigation, AIG and other insurance companies have been unnecessarily denying and prolonging serious health insurance claims of civilian contractors who were injured or killed while participating in U.S. combat activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The men and women who sacrifice their lives to protect our nation on the battlefield should be able to return to their families without having to wage another battle here at home to receive the health care they are more than entitled to receive,” Congressman Cummings said. “I was absolutely disgusted to read about the atrocities that individuals are being forced to endure as they attempt to get treatment for the injuries they received while serving our country.” Read full story here

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"A secret recording reveals the Army may be pushing its medical staff not to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army and Senate have ignored the implications."he also received pressure not to properly diagnosetraumatic brain injury"

Tales of the secret Army tapeAfter a soldier taped a psychologist saying he'd been pressured not to diagnose PTSD, the Army launched an investigation. Read the details of how the Army declared itself innocent.

Tampa Contractor Killed in Afghanistan Santos Cardona was on a patrol early Saturday morning. There had been many roadside bombs in the past few days, and "they wanted him to go out with his dog. The explosion split the Humvee he was in, and it landed on top of him. He was killed instantly." Cardona was a contractor with American Canine, a Florida-based contracting company. The 34-year old had been working with a bomb dog since November 2008

A drawdown of contractors in IraqThe reduction of civilian contractors in Iraq, ordered by Gen. Ray Odierno, will pose challenges as troop reductions are carried out.

CNA refuses to approve TBI screening forBomb Blast VictimHe needs to provide them with medical evidence that he has TBIso he can be tested for TBIWalter Reed intentionally did not test for this when he was therebeing put back togetherDOD avoided TBI Screening

ALJ William Dorsey Deals Blow to Blackwater Families

Blackwater misrepresents their employees as contractors so they don't have to pay taxes but they magically become employees so the taxpayer has to pay for their Defense Base Act insuranceThis insurance for PSC's runs 50% and more of their yearly salary

The Department of Labor sets up PTSD TBI Website for VeteransAmerica's Heroes at WorkAt the same time they are allowing AIG and CNA to deny medical, psychiatric, and disability payments to the Contractors, most of whom are Veterans, with the same diagnoses' from the same Wars

Secretary Chao has set back decades of progress at the Department of Labor by stonewalling investigations, embracing corporate special interests, and showing general contempt for working families.Lets hope that under incoming Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis the Department of Labor will properly oversee the implementation of the Defense Base Act in the spirit in which it was written, not how it is being "interpreted".

Daylight hits Covert NLV AirlineVision Air is being sued by employees who say the company withheld millions in government hazard pay they earned for flying into war zones.The government requires contractors and subcontractors to swear in affidavits that the hazard pay is given to the employees who earned it.

In the Line of Fire“It was the contractors’ war,” Fainaru writes. “Not just the [mercenaries] but the janitors and the cooks, the bean counters and the bomb-disposal experts. “The government didn’t even have the decency to count them, maybe because if it did, all the basic barometers that the Pentagon had been using to measure how the war was going — troop levels, number and frequency of attacks, and especially, casualties — would have gone straight out the window.The mercs didn’t die or get wounded or engage in combat in Iraq. They were like cardboard soldiers.”

CANCERSoldiers and civilians who are currently working inor have previously worked in the war zones are developing cancers at an alarming rateWill the DBA coveryour cancer?Toxins take tollWar ZoneCancer Registry

A poorly run Pentagon program for providing workman's compensation for civilian taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday.

Insurance companies alone have pocketed $600 million in excessive profits over the past five years, says a staff report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Defense Department refuses to adjust its approach for managing the program.

According to the committee, the Pentagon allows its contractors to negotiate their own insurance contracts. By contrast, the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Army Corps of Engineers have all selected a single insurance carrier to provide the insurance at fixed rates.

"What makes the situation even worse is the people this program is supposed to benefit - the injured employees working for contractors - have to fight the insurance companies to get their benefits," committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at a hearing Thursday. "Delays and denials in paying claims are the rule."

KBR Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR's contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer.

"Out of this amount, just $73 million actually goes to injured contractors, and AIG and KBR pocket over $100 million as profit," Waxman said. Full Story READ NOW!

Tangiers MedicalWe'll amputate your leg, give AIG or CNA your disability rating, and spy on you and your family when we get you homeConflict of Interest

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

No agency tracks how many civilian workers have killed themselves after returning from the war zones. A small study in 2007 found that 24 percent of contract employees from DynCorp, a defense contractor, showed signs of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after returning home. The figure is roughly equivalent to those found in studies of returning soldiers.

On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s suicide, Barb Dill breaks down at her husband’s tombstone. Wade Dill, a Marine Corps veteran, took a contractor job in Iraq. Three weeks after he returned home for good, he committed suicide

Birgitt Eysselinck has spent years trying to prove that her husband's death in Iraq was related to stress from his job with a company specializing in the removal of land mines and explosive ordnance. So far, courts have sided with the insurance firm, Chicago-based CNA, in denying Eysselinck's claim.

Eysselinck, 44, said that neither federal judges nor insurance adjusters understand that civilian contractors face many of the same risks in Iraq and Afghanistan that soldiers do. Her husband, Tim Eysselinck, endured mortar attacks and frequently traveled across Iraq's dangerous highways.

Three-year-old Thyra helps to “plant roses” at her father’s burial in Namibia, sprinkling sand from a little spade onto roses as they are tossed into the grave.

"There is a huge percentage of contractors who are silently suffering," Eysselinck said."That obviously puts them and their families at risk.Communities are bearing the brunt of this, especially the families."

Medical Care Workers Executed in AfghanistanThe workers — six Americans, a German, a Briton and two Afghans — were shot to death in a remote region of northeastern Afghanistan. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found Friday.

Marcie Hascall Clark, an advocate for contract workers, said that contractor deaths and injuries reflected contractors’ importance in fighting the wars. . “I don’t think most contractors expect to be treated as nobly as our soldiers, but they don’t expect to be forgotten, either,” saidHascall Clark, who runs a group called

We Ask Again Why ArmorGroup is not on trial for endangering the lives of everyone they exposed to an armed Danny Fitzsimons?

Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare are dead because of ArmorGroup’s negligence in failing to Vet a known mentally ill employee. Danny ran out on a pending weapons charge in England and was on probation for previous convictions.Danny Fitzsimons also had known alcohol and drug problems.

“This abusive and illegal scheme by the defendants has been allowed to go on for too long. We are talking about loss of life, suicide, loss of homes, marriages, families split up, “ Bloch said, “and the culprits are the large government contractors who should have treated their employees better, and the mega-insurance companies who were paid a hefty sum to make sure the employees were taken care of with uninterrupted benefits in the event of injuries in these war zones.”